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THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 64. ARDOUR AND MEMORY by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE CUCKOO-THROB, THE HEARTBEAT OF THE SPRING
Last Line: WITH DITTIES AND WITH DIRGES INFINITE.
Subject(s): MEMORY;

THE cuckoo-throb, the heartbeat of the Spring;
The rosebud's blush that leaves it as it grows
Into the full-eyed fair unblushing rose;
The summer clouds that visit every wing
With fires of sunrise and of sunsetting;
The furtive flickering streams to light re-born
'Mid airs new fledged and valorous lusts of morn,
While all the daughters of the daybreak sing:--

These ardour loves, and memory: and when flown
All joys, and through dark forest-boughs in flight
The wind swoops onward brandishing the light,
Even yet the rose-tree's verdure left alone
Will flush all ruddy though the rose be gone;
With ditties and with dirges infinite.



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